Seeking (PAVAD: FBI Romantic Suspense, #15) Read online

  SEEKING

  PAVAD: FBI ROMANTIC SUSPENSE 15

  CALLE J.

  BROOKES

  LOST RIVER LIT PUBLISHING, LLC

  SPRINGS VALLEY INDIANA

  EST. 2011

  SEEKING

  Copyright © 2018 by Calle J. Brookes

  All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations em- bodied in critical articles or reviews.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  For information contact :

  www.callejbrookes.com

  Book and Cover design by B.G. Lashbrooks

  ISBN: 978-1948-328-89-0

  First Edition: May 2018

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Seeking (PAVAD: FBI Romantic Suspense)

  ONE

  TWO

  THREE

  FOUR

  FIVE

  SIX

  SEVEN

  EIGHT

  NINE

  TEN

  ELEVEN

  TWELVE

  THIRTEEN

  FOURTEEN

  FIFTEEN

  SIXTEEN

  SEVENTEEN

  EIGHTEEN

  NINETEEN

  TWENTY

  TWENTY-ONE

  TWENTY-TWO

  TWENTY-THREE

  TWENTY-FOUR

  TWENTY-FIVE

  TWENTY-SIX

  TWENTY-SEVEN

  TWENTY-EIGHT

  TWENTY-NINE

  THIRTY

  THIRTY-ONE

  THIRTY-TWO

  THIRTY-THREE

  THIRTY-FOUR

  THIRTY-FIVE

  THIRTY-SIX

  THIRTY-SEVEN

  THIRTY-EIGHT

  THIRTY-NINE

  FORTY

  FORTY-ONE

  FORTY-TWO

  FORTY-THREE

  FORTY-FOUR

  FORTY-FIVE

  FORTY-SIX

  FORTY-SEVEN

  FORTY-EIGHT

  FORTY-NINE

  FIFTY

  FIFTY-ONE

  FIFTY-TWO

  FIFTY-THREE

  FIFTY-FOUR

  FIFTY-FIVE

  FIFTY-SIX

  FIFTY-SEVEN

  FIFTY-EIGHT

  FIFTY-NINE

  SIXTY

  SIXTY-ONE

  SIXTY-TWO

  SIXTY-THREE

  SIXTY-FOUR

  SIXTY-FIVE

  SIXTY-SIX

  SIXTY-SEVEN

  SIXTY-EIGHT

  SIXTY-NINE

  SEVENTY

  SEVENTY-ONE

  SEVENTY-TWO

  SEVENTY-THREE

  SEVENTY-FOUR

  SEVENTY-FIVE

  SEVENTY-SIX

  SEVENTY-SEVEN

  SEVENTY-EIGHT

  SEVENTY-NINE

  EIGHTY

  EIGHTY-ONE

  EIGHTY-TWO

  EIGHTY-THREE

  EIGHTY-FOUR

  EIGHTY-FIVE

  EIGHTY-SIX

  EIGHTY-SEVEN

  EIGHTY-EIGHT

  EIGHTY-NINE

  NINETY

  NINETY-ONE

  NINETY-TWO

  NINETY-THREE

  NINETY-FOUR

  NINETY-FIVE

  NINETY-SIX

  NINETY-SEVEN

  NINETY-EIGHT

  NINETY-NINE

  ONE HUNDRED

  ONE HUNDRED ONE

  ONE HUNDRED TWO

  ONE HUNDRED THREE

  ONE HUNDRED FOUR

  ONE HUNDRED FIVE

  ONE HUNDRED SIX

  ONE HUNDRED SEVEN

  ONE HUNDRED EIGHT

  ONE HUNDRED NINE

  ONE HUNDRED TEN

  ONE HUNDRED ELEVEN

  ONE HUNDRED TWELVE

  ONE HUNDRED THIRTEEN

  ONE HUNDRED FOURTEEN

  ONE HUNDRED FIFTEEN

  ONE HUNDRED SIXTEEN

  ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEEN

  ONE HUNDRED EIGHTEEN

  ONE HUNDRED NINETEEN

  ONE HUNDRED TWENTY

  ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-ONE

  ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-TWO

  ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-THREE

  ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-FOUR

  ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-FIVE

  ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-SIX

  ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-SEVEN

  ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-EIGHT

  ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-NINE

  ONE HUNDRED THIRTY

  ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-ONE

  ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-TWO

  ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-THREE

  ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-FOUR

  ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-FIVE

  ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-SIX

  ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-SEVEN

  ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-EIGHT

  ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-NINE

  ONE HUNDRED FORTY

  ONE HUNDRED FORTY-ONE

  EPILOGUE

  Other books by

  CALLE J.

  BROOKES

  PARANORMAL ROMANCE

  DARDANOS Paranormal Romance

  The Blood Hunter (formerly Live or Die)

  The Blood Heir (formerly The Blood King)

  The Blood Seer (formerly The Seer’s Strength)

  The Blood Warrior (formerly The Warrior’s Woman)

  The Blood Healer (formerly The Healer’s Heart)

  The Wolf Bitten (formerly Once Wolf Bitten)

  The Demon Queen (formerly Awakening the Demon’s Queen)

  The Wolf Queen (formerly The Wolf’s Redemption)

  The Wolf God (formerly The Wolf God & His Mate)

  The Nightmare God (formerly God of Nightmares)

  DARDANOS: THE LAQUAZZEANA

  The Warrior Soul (formerly A Warrior’s Quest)

  The Darkest Soul (formerly Out of the Darkness)

  The Chosen Soul (formerly Warrior Blind)

  The Reborned Soul (formerly The Witch)

  The Goddess Soul (formerly Balance of the Worlds)

  The Healer Soul (formerly The Healer’s Soul)

  DARDANOS: THE ADRASTOS

  The Outcast One (formerly The Outcast)

  The Forlorn One (formerly The Forlorn)

  The Beloved One (formerly The Beloved)

  The Betrayed One (formerly The Betrayed)

  ROMANTIC SUSPENSE

  PAVAD: FBI ROMANTIC SUSPENSE

  Beginning (Prequel 1)

  Waiting (Prequel 2)

  Watching

  Wanting

  Second Chances (contains novellas “Reuniting & Reckoning)

  Hunting

  Running

  Redeeming

  Revealing

  Stalking

  Ghosting

  Burning

  Gathering

  Falling

  Hiding

  Seeking

  FINLEY CREEK SERIES

  TRILOGY ONE (TEXAS STATE POLICE)

  Her Best Friend’s Keeper

  Shelter from the Storm

  The Price of Silence

  TRILOGY TWO (FINLEY CREEK GENERAL)

  If the Dark Wins

  Wounds That Won’t Heal

  Hope for Finley Creek (bonus novella)

  As the Night Ends

  MASTERSON COUNTY NOVELLA SERIES

  Seeking the Sheriff />
  Discovering the Doctor

  Ruining the Rancher

  SUSPENSE/THRILLER

  PAVAD: FBI CASE FILES

  PAVAD: FBI Case Files #0001

  “Knocked Out”

  PAVAD: FBI Case Files #0002

  “Knocked Down”

  PAVAD: FBI Case Files #0003

  “Knocked Around”

  COMING SOON

  Denying the Devil (Masterson County #4)

  Calle has several free reads available at

  www.CalleJBrookesReads.com

  For my grandfather, the best man I have ever known.

  You will be missed.

  Oct. 2015

  For my grandmother, who gave me the courage to try. Without you

  and your love of romance, I never would have made it this far.

  Feb. 2016

  CALLE J. BROOKES is first and foremost a fiction writer. She enjoys crafting paranormal romance and romantic suspense. She reads almost every genre except horror. She spends most of her time juggling family life and writing while reminding herself that she can’t spend all of her time in the worlds found within books. CJ loves to be contacted by her readers via email and at www.CalleJBrookes.com. When not at home writing stories of adventure and wrangling with two border collies and a beagle puppy, CJ is off in her RV somewhere exploring the beautiful world we live in, along with her husband of she can’t remember how many years and their child.

  ONE

  THERE WERE FEW things Shannon Toliver knew with absolute certainty. She loved her job with the FBI, she adored her family, her friends were awesome—and she absolutely abhorred Ezra Jackson Hahn. “Let go of my arm, Hahn. Before I gnaw off your hand.”

  “In a good mood tonight, aren’t we?”

  “We aren’t in anything.” She had to admit, his hand wasn’t hurting her. She could easily pull herself away—and give half the people in Smokey’s a real good show. Shannon wasn’t about to do that. “So what do you want?”

  “Bobby Pruitt—that cop you were dancing with...” Ezra glared down at her from eyes so dark, she was half-convinced they were alien. Fanciful, stupid, but the truth. If the eyes were the window to the soul, then Ezra’s was pitch black.

  Where she was concerned. He had a lot of redeeming qualities. She’d seen them before.

  He wasn’t nearly as big a jerk with the people he cared about.

  With everyone but her.

  Shannon didn’t have a clue what she had done to make him feel that way about her. She and Ezra grated on each other like rough-grit sandpaper. Shannon didn’t see that changing any time soon.

  “What about him?”

  “Married. Three kids. Wife is in Kansas City right now. Heard he likes to get around.” He kept pulling her toward the door. Shannon let him. The last thing she wanted to be was the latest Smokey Jo Spectacle.

  “No kidding. Debbie is a friend of mine.” They had been dancing because the dance floor was the only quiet place for them to talk without being overheard. He was worried about his wife; she had been secretive lately. Like she was worried about something.

  Shannon hoped she’d reassured him—and Debbie was worried about something. She’d been ill for three weeks and didn’t know how to tell Bobby the reason why. Shannon had been telling him to go home and talk to his wife for once. The playing around was just rumors, as far as she could tell.

  “Then why the hell were you wrapped around him like plastic wrap?” Ezra’s voice took on that judgmental holier-than-thou tone he seemed to reserve just for her. The switch flipped.

  Shannon stretched up to her full five-foot-three-and-two-thirds height. Not that stretching did any good—Ezra was at least thirteen inches taller than she was. Irritating.

  And a fact he used against her whenever he could. “I wasn’t... I’m not going to explain how I deal with my friends, Hahn. It’s none of your flipping business.”

  “Do you ever curse? Or are you always such a goody-two-shoes? Can you say ‘shit’, Toliver?”

  “Only when you drive me to it. Let go. I didn’t make a scene inside because everyone was watching, but I don’t appreciate you getting grabby.” His hand felt hot on her arm, scorching her skin.

  “Guiding a woman through the crowd isn’t grabby, it’s gentlemanly.”

  She snorted. “Not from you. And I could make my own way through.” He hadn’t ever been a gentleman to her. Far from it. The man had gone out of his way on numerous occasions to needle her.

  “Fine. Don’t be appreciative. I’ll find someone who is.”

  “Good luck with that.” Not that he’d need it. Talk about unfair. Ezra was a very, very pretty man. He was tall, broad shouldered—though a bit gangly for her tastes—dark, and handsome. And well...just beautiful. Even his teeth were perfect. He looked like he should be modeling expensive underwear on a larger-than-life billboard somewhere for stupid women to drool over every time they drove by.

  He made her feel like a grubby kid next to him. A kid who could never measure up to the local legend, at that.

  Which was ridiculous.

  Ezra Hahn was nothing to her but her sworn enemy. The bane of her work existence, her workplace anathema.

  He drove her flat-out nuts.

  Without even trying.

  So why was she following him outside? Shannon didn’t have a clue. Maybe she was just a glutton for punishment where the man was concerned.

  EZRA HAD taken one look at her tonight, her suit jacket missing and the little silk blouse she’d worn underneath it that day shimmering in the lights on the dance floor, and he’d wanted her away from that other idiot no matter what he had to do.

  So, he’d gone with it. “Just didn’t think you would want people talking about you being the latest on the list of his conquests.”

  “Thanks for your concern. I didn’t know you were the type to buy into stupid gossip, Hahn,” Shannon said, shooting him a look from eyes that were right smack in the middle of the brown spectrum. It wasn’t the color that stuck with him the most. It was the shape. The intensity. How she used them to express exactly what she was feeling. He loved putting fire into her eyes whenever he could.

  He’d dreamed of her eyes many times before. Her eyes, her sharp slightly too-wide mouth, the trim little body that was just the right size for a man to hold on to... Shannon Toliver was in his dreams far too often for comfort. Exactly where she had been since the first time he’d ever been alone with her.

  He couldn’t miss the sarcasm. It was her trademark response to ninety percent of what he said. “You’re welcome. You got a ride home? I’d be happy to give you a lift.”

  “Sure you would. Straight down to hell, no doubt. I know how you think, Ezra Hahn.”

  She snipped at him. Like she always did. If she wasn’t snarking in his direction, then he’d get concerned.

  Ezra turned to her more fully. He’d accomplished what he’d wanted—he had her out of Smokey’s and away from that jackass inside. He wasn’t sure what he wanted to say next. Idiot. He was an idiot. He should have just left her inside—alone. He knew that. He’d decided his best bet in life was to stay far away from this little piece of trouble long ago. “Listen, Toliver—”

  Fire shot through his neck.

  Ezra hit the ground, entire body shaking as darkness threatened to consume him. Hard hands yanked him up. Shannon screamed out. Someone else, a woman, yelled from nearby.

  Ezra gave one more good shot at fighting the darkness. He lost.

  TWO

  AGENT MADDOX JONES knew the instant his partner Jaclyn—also a Jones, though no relation—came barreling back into Smokey’s that something very wrong had happened.

  Jac was the calm-in-every-storm type.

  PAVAD usually had two dozen tables in the back room of Smokey’s, and Jac hopped up on a one and whistled. Loudly.

  Jac never did that. Nor had she ever looked so frightened.

  Max jumped to his feet and started toward her, every instinct flaring.


  Something was wrong. Very, very wrong. The crowd quieted. Fin McLaughlin, the assistant director of the PAVAD division, stood. “Jones? What is it?”

  “Agents Toliver and Hahn were attacked in the parking lot and abducted less than three minutes ago. I’ve called it in. I was too far away to stop them. Older model Nissan—Arkansas plates. First three letters of 413. Four men, mid-twenties to forties.”

  Jack didn’t mess around with words—something Max had always liked about her. She was straight to the point.

  He grabbed his half-eaten meal and shoved it toward the nearest administrative clerk that was attached to his unit. “You handle this for us?”

  Joann nodded, waving a hand toward the rest of the table his team had been sharing to celebrate the birth of his team leader’s new baby. “Go! My people will deal with it.”

  Max had some cash in his wallet, and he pulled it quickly. “Hundred might cover it. If not, I’m sure petty cash will.”

  “Go!”

  He went.

  Max caught up with Jac near the door. He wrapped one hand around her elbow and pulled her closer. “What exactly did you see?”

  He’d cut in front of several key PAVAD people, but— hell—, they’d gotten out of his way. Jac looked up at him. With Alessandra out with her new baby, Max was in charge of Team Five for the time being. And he had an almost fully intact team in front him. Decision made. “Jac?”

  “They attacked Ezra first, but I’m thinking Shannon may have been the actual target. She and Ezra were arguing—again—and the men surrounded them. I think they used a stun gun on both of them. I couldn’t help them, Max. By the time I was a quarter of the way through the parking lot, they had them in the van. And I was too far away.”

  “You’re helping them right now.” And now they had to find them.

  THREE

  HARSH HANDS SHOOK her awake. “Open your eyes, bitch.”

  Shannon took exception to the insult but had no choice but to comply. When she opened her eyes, she was tied to a narrow wooden chair, there were three computers in front of her, and four men surrounded her. She half-felt she had warped back to Abraham Lincoln’s days. Talk about primitive. Except for the computers in the corner.

  It was far too sophisticated for this hunter’s shack.

  There was a long, lean male body dumped in the corner. His hands were bound and duct tape covered his mouth.

  Ezra wasn’t moving.

  She had no clue whether he was alive or dead. Shannon battled back the terror.